So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Mercy!

My 40th high school reunion is just around the corner. (Mercy, how did THAT happen?)

Combine that with the fact that I'm signing up to take a photography class at the local community college. I pulled out my college transcript, which consists completely of one remedial math and three art classes. Being in the education frame of mind, and since I'm trying to remember the names of many of the 349 people I went to high school with, I also took a look at my high school transcript. The dark, smudgy ink couldn't hide my poor GPA and class standing. Pitiful really.

When I shared the info with my husband (who graduated high school with a 3.8 and attended college for nine years) he said, 'that's what you got without trying; you'd think you would have had a good time, but you didn't.'

I said, 'what do you mean?'

He said, 'well, most people with that GPA were partying and having a good time. You didn't. You just didn't care, and you were trying to survive.'

' I told him, 'if any of our kids had brought home those grades they'd have been grounded for life, and been locked away in their bedrooms, possibly to starve.'

I wonder how my classmates who finished below me fared.

Did my father really sign those report cards?

Really?

Oh blessed hindsight! Who was I back then?

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:16-18

Update to this post: yes, we are in fact having a reunion, which means I DO indeed need to lose 10 lbs and do 1,000,000 sit-ups between now and mid-August. And do a better job of studying faces and names than I did Biology 40 years ago.

5 comments:

I have the same academic story. My kids wouldn't see the light of day if they had the grades I did. My husband is the same as yours, did well and went through grad school. Isn't it interesting how we chose husbands who are high achievers and encouraged our kids to do well? I thank God all the time that his mercies are new and I can begin each day with a clean slate. I don't know who I was back then, but I sure like who I have become. God is good.

But I trust you'll go to that reunion with confidence, fueled and encourated by where God has brought you since then, and where He has brought your well grounded children *through* you. What "grade" would be awarded for strong character, a giving/serving heart, and faith which serves as an anchor, a lifeboat, a shield, a source of peace, hope, joy, and MORE? That is invaluable. Life is the BEST classroom, I'm convinced. No GPA can measure the lessons God desires for us to learn in this life. ;)Blessings,Toni

Toni, thankmyunfornyour gracious words of encouragement. I'd still have killed the kids, if they'd scored as I did, but it's good to be reminded that while I wasn't studying algebra I was building character and strength. I wouldn't trade those for a 4.0